Raegan W. Durant, M.D.The Deep South Resource Center for Minority Aging Research will ring in the new year with a new principal investigator. Raegan W. Durant, M.D., associate professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Division of Preventive Medicine, is to step into his new role as PI in January.
The Deep South RCMAR is a collaborative partnership of the Morehouse School of Medicine, Tuskegee University, the University of Alabama and UAB. It focuses on minority aging research with a disparities concentration, particularly related to health problems more prevalent among older African Americans living in both rural and urban areas. Funded by the National Institute of Aging, the RCMAR also offers various training and career development programs for early career or transitional scientists, such as the Pilot Grant Program and Diversity Supplements.
The RCMAR also sponsors trainees from all four sites to participate in the UAB Minority Health and Health Disparities Center Health Disparities Research Education Program, which includes didactic lectures on health disparities as well as grant- and manuscript-writing retreats.
After joining UAB faculty in 2006, Durant was one of the RCMAR’s original scientists, formerly known as RCMAR scholars. Since then, he has continued to support programs over the years in various roles, including as mentor, pilot grant reviewer, co-chair of the Scholar Advisory Group, and co-chair of the Community Liaison and Recruitment Core.
“I am humbled by the opportunity to lead RCMAR alongside our team and to promote the center’s growth as well as its mission in fostering the next generation of diverse faculty committed to careers in health disparities and aging research,” Durant said. “This prestigious award has grown into a wonderful resource for minority aging research scientists, and leading it into the next chapter is exciting. I hope to continue the momentum of my predecessors and maintain the model of success that RCMAR has become.”
He succeeds Kathryn Burgio, Ph.D., professor of medicine in the Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care, who led RCMAR beginning in 2013 and is retiring from UAB in 2020.
Aside from his involvement with the RCMAR, Durant is the medical director of Cooper Green Mercy Health Services and a Board member of the newly formed Cooper Green Mercy Health Services Authority. He has also served on various national scientific review committees and as an ad-hoc reviewer for prominent scientific journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Journal of General Internal Medicine.